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Was wondering if anyone could please help - I'm currently about to enter my 3rd year at uni and have to decide whether I want to stay on the BEng or move up to MEng.

I'm not sure what I want to specialise in or if I will even go into specific engineering as I'm considering finance/management aspects. However I want to leave the door open for getting chartered incase I find specialised I enjoy.

Will I be at a great disadvantage doing BEng and not MEng when looking for jobs? And what are the benefits of doing BEng + MSc rather than MEng straight away?

I very strongly recommend that you look at job sites and find what qualifications the type of company you are interested in are looking for. There are no "standard" routes into engineering so you need to find what each role / industry requires - they can be very different.

Don't get a Master's degree just to get CEng! You can get CEng by demonstrating that your experience is equivalent to a Master's degree. In any case, you need to consider how valuable CEng actually is: when you are looking at jobs you will notice that very few recognise CEng and I, personally, have never seen one that absolutely requires it.

If you are planning to go into management you are very likely to be better off getting a BEng, get a few years experience, and then try for an MBA. And for most engineering jobs my experience is that you are better getting a BEng but again getting as much experience as possible. But if you want to got into a more specialist engineering role MEng might be the right choice.

I agree with what Andy is saying, it really depends on what you want to do after you qualify. But, if you do intend to follow a continue with a career in engineering then I would definitely recommend studying the MEng.

This would avoid possibly having to go back to uni in the future should you decide you want to go for CEng. Bear in mind, your circumstances (eg family, finances, etc) might change in the future and it may be difficult to go back to studying.

Plus, it is becoming very competetive for jobs/graduate schemes; therefore, I believe you would stand a better chance of gaining a place, particularly with the bigger and more reputable companies, if you had a MEng as oppose to BEng.

Speaking as a recruiting engineering manager for a big reputable company, not one of my team has MEng (This includes several CEngs.)

But yes, I suppose sadly you're right that as more graduates compete for fewer positions other companies may have different policies so it is well worth checking out the adverts. And Google* graduate entry schemes to see what companies are looking for there.

As with what Donald and Andy have stated it's a personal choice. Though I would say working for a large power company I have seen a trend in more MEng qualified graduates being recruited but can't say for certain if there is a bias towards MEng; I myself am only qualified with a BEng (Hons) just 4 yrs ago. I sometimes postulate if I'd even be hired now in the current Grad Scheme with some of the qualifications of these young grads.

If CEng is important to you, I suggest you continue to MEng as it's a much easier route from my personal experience. It's hard enough keeping a credible log much less trying to collate a report for further learning for the initial assessment. Certain jobs like mine where you have loads of short term and long term actions also do not help as it's a jumbled pile. I've put the CEng application more or less to the back burner and work on my job competency model which actually has monetary value and is quite complex in its own right.

An MSc in my opinion is the more specialist route; a MEng basically adds value to the theoretical principles of the BEng and develops this for application in industry. The level of the dissertation also differs as more independent work and thinking is demonstrated.